Entry Description: While well known for their wide array of watches and street-wear, Nixon had never produced a product for the audio market. From the projects inception, we were challenged to create a product and brand strategy that would extend Nixon’s core brand attributes of iconic functionality, refined detailing, and the use of premium materials and finishes.
The Nixon Headphone family represents Nixons first offering in the world of personal acoustics.
Defined by their use of premium materials such as stainless steel, anodized aluminum and leather, the family of headphones all share an emphasis on fit and finish and functionality. Through the use of a patented ball joint, the earcans can be immediately customized to the users unique fit, or folded for storage.
The line Consists of 3 models: the Wire, a high fidelity ‘earbud’ designed for compact listening, the Nomadic, a foldable on-ear model ideal for the traveler and the Master Blaster, a premium offering with optimal sound quality.
Once the overarching strategy had been established the challenge turned to the creation of a unified design language that could be applied to a broad line of models ranging in size and functionality: from small ear-buds (“The Wire”) to on-ear travel headphones (“The Nomadic”) and finally to an over-ear, Premium offering: the “Master Blaster”. All members of the family had specific needs and users in mind. Thus the design language while distinctive had to also be flexible.
- At the center of our design is an iconic, patented ‘orbital’ joint that allows complete 180-degree free articulation of the ear-cans. The result is a truly ergonomic earpiece that adjusts to fit each users unique listening position.
- Our formed Stainless steel armature and padded leather headbands set Nixon apart from its plastic and vinyl competitors while providing elegant, durable, comfort.
- By allowing the ear-cans to rotate 90 degrees in any axis, the headphones can easily be folded flat and packed away for travel.
- When traveling the braided fabric cords easily unplug from the headphones for compact storage and tangle free cables
- By integrating a volume knob in the earpiece we put volume adjustment within easy reach and without adding bulky elements to the cord around the neck.